It’s been a while since a young Hugh Smith took the bus from Lower Sackville to Halifax every day to pursue his aspirations in gymnastics.

He’d tell you it was all worth it.

At 29, Dartmouth’s Smith, married and working part time for Air Canada, is still going strong in the sport he loves.

He became Canada’s all-around men’s gymnastics champion last month in Ottawa, joining Halifax Alta club mate Ellie Black at the top of their sport, and will spend the summer trying to earn a place on Canada’s entry for the world championships starting in late September in Antwerp, Belgium.

With three years to go until the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Smith doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself.

But his body is strong, his flowing hair still black, and his desire is abundant. He knows other male gymnasts have maintained their abilities into their late 30s, and he won’t rule anything out.

“I’d like to think about the 2016 Olympics, because it’s the Olympics,” Smith said in a recent interview at a Dartmouth yoga studio.

He’s incorporated yoga into his training in recent months and believes it has offered great benefits physically, mostly for flexibility, and mentally, allowing him to transport the sense of calm to his gymnastics.

“It’s the goal of my life,” he added. “It’s what every kid in every amateur sport dreams about.”

But there won’t be the self-imposed pressure this time around. He pushed hard to make the 2012 Olympics in London, knowing Canada had qualified only one male gymnast.

He’s an international-calibre competitor, especially in floor exercise and vault. He has a Pan American Games bronze medal in the vault from two years ago in Mexico, his wife’s native country.

But when it came to award the spot, Gymnastics Canada selected Nathan Gafuik. Smith, who fell out of contention when he placed sixth overall at the Canadian trials in Regina, concedes it hurt and left him briefly wondering if he should continue.

“I put too much focus on the Olympics the last time,” he said. “This time I really just want to put my focus on training hard and trying to be the best gymnast I can be and not necessarily focusing on trying to make one event.

“It is three years away, so right now I’m going to take it one year at a time. So far, things have been going really well and as long as I can stay healthy I think there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to continue.”

David Kikuchi, who coaches Smith along with his father Tak Kikuchi, said he couldn’t be more proud of his pupil.

“His gymnastics journey has had many more obstacles than everyone else, and yet here he is at 29 years of age winning his first senior national title,” said Kikuchi, a two-time Olympian.

“He is an irreplaceable presence in the gym, and he has played a part in the successes of our other athletes. He is a hard worker who knows what he wants, and he has put together a very solid career. Hopefully, he still has a few things to add to his story.”

Missing out on the Olympics left a mark. Smith did some travelling with his wife, visiting Egypt and Italy, to get some separation from gymnastics.

“I knew I wanted to continue in the sport, but I needed a break,” he said. “At that time, I took on a lot of responsibilities. I started coaching a lot more and working more and put my training aside a little bit.”

Smith isn’t 30, but it’s on this year’s calendar.

It’s an advanced age for a male gymnast, but he’s not the oldest competitor in Canada and it’s not uncommon for gymnasts in their late 30s to compete internationally. Bulgaria’s Yordan Yovchev competed at the 2012 Olympics at the age of 39.

Smith said many casual fans equate gymnastics with young girls who are done by their early 20s, but men get better as they get stronger and more powerful. He said men “grow into the sport, where girls kind of grow out of the sport.”

“I don’t feel like my body is slowing down at all, which is an amazing blessing, really,” he said. “For some guys, their bodies slow down and shut down, and I don’t feel that at all right now. So why stop?”

Smith grew up in Lower Sackville and began gymnastics at the Taiso Club. But there was no program for him there after the age of 11 and his coaches advised him to go to Alta, where he could receive training toward national and international competition.

Initially, it meant travelling back and forth to continue in gymnastics, but he persevered. You’ll find him at Alta most days even now.

Since winning the nationals, he’s spent a week in Calgary with Canada’s other men’s gymnasts to begin preparation for the worlds. This year’s world championships are for individuals as opposed to teams, meaning Canada will send the athletes with the best talent on each apparatus.

He said Canada narrowly missed qualifying a full men’s team for London, and a better effort will be needed to get a full squad in Rio de Janeiro.

“To qualify, we need to train like the top countries, and that’s something we probably didn’t do in the last few years. We were taking it a little bit easy. And I think it was an important lesson for the whole team. I think we learned if we want this, we really have to push it.”

He shook off his Olympic disappointment quickly enough.

A World Cup bronze medal in floor exercise in Japan in December told him he still had what it took to compete. That just made him work harder in preparation for the Canadian championships.

“That right there is what gave me the motivation,” he said. “I knew I could still do it, and if I wanted to keep doing it and get better I’d have to scale down a bit on all the coaching and everything and just focus on the training. So I dedicated myself to training up to seven hours a day.

“It all kind of came together for nationals in a really nice way. I was definitely pleased about the result. It put me into the position I’m in right now, where I’m training hopefully to make the world championships.”

While 2016 remains off in the distance, the work really begins now. There are the Commonwealth Games in 2014 in Scotland and the Pan American Games in 2015 in Canada that will have some bearing on Canada’s team for Rio.

“There is something going on every year,” Smith said. “I just want to focus on being in the best physical shape I can be and to perform the best, and if that allows me to continue to 2016, then so be it.”